What did you get this week from your public library?

1- True Blood Volume One: All Together by Alan Ball, David Tischman, Maria Huehner & David Messina (Adult Graphic Novel)

2- Call me Russell by Russell Peters (Adult Biography)

3- Love, Lust & Faking It: The Naked Truth About Sex, Lies, And True Romance by Jenny McCarthy (Adult Non-Fiction)

4- Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day by Alliance (Comedy DVD)

5- Virgin Territory: Stories from the Road to Womanhood by Cathy Alter (Adult Fiction)

Well it has been a little while since I last posted a message on my blog. I went to Ottawa for the week for the Easter Holiday and for an interview with the Ottawa Public Library for a Student Program Library Assistant job. My fingers and toes are all crossed! Here is a list of the books and DVD I got from London Public Library yesterday evening once I arrived back in London. Enjoy!

Why I'm Starting To Like Blogging...

I have really enjoyed blogging this term for my LIS 9364 - Young Adult Materials class. Despite being done school, I plan on continuing to write on my blog. I have come to the conlcusion that I enjoy blogging because it is a lot like scrapbooking online. I love scrapbooking! To my right are two pages from my personal scrapbook. They are from my Christmas vacation with my family in Cancun Mexico. I enjoy scrapbooking because you can be creative and make it your own. The same goes with each blog post. You get to personalize your blog post and scrapbook pages with different  pictures, fonts and colours. LOVE IT!

What Did You Get This Week From Your Public LIBRARY?

I am super happy my week old flowers are still alive and looking beautiful. The lilies died but that was it. So I am still trying to do a weekly post of what I got from my public library this week. This week I decided to get some movies from my library. I am officially done school and want to vedge out this week and recover from the long hard hours I have put in over the past 8 months. Today I got one of my all time favorite movies Corrina, Corrina with Whoopi Goldberg. Now she is a lady that can pull off wearing some pretty gloves. During our last LIS 9364 group presentation, one of the presenters brought up the book and movie Pippi Longstocking. Later that week I placed a hold for the book and movie and I picked them up this morning. I have never read the book yet (which is translated from Swedish to English) and will be doing so very soon.  Now I am off to watch a movie, I just don't know which one yet. Here is a list of what I got this week from the London Public Library.

Pippi Longstocking (Book) by Astrid Lindgren

The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (DVD) by Columbia Pictures

Corrina, Corrina (DVD) by Alliance Atlantis

Vampire's Assistant (DVD) by Universal Studios

Wild Dogs (DVD) by Walt Disney

The Sopranos - 5th Season (DVD) by HBO Video (Adult)

The Time Has Come To Go Down A New Path: I'm Finally an MLIS GRADUATE!!!

This day has finally come! I have officially handed in all of my assignments and have attended all of my classes, and well it does feel kinda weird. I am very happy it is over but I know I will miss it and I will get bored in the next few weeks if I don't staying busy. But the time has come now for me to move forward. For one I can't wait to get out of this apartment. The neighbours above us are super loud and I just want to move back to Ottawa. Ben an I are here until the end of May. Our lease ends May 31st but most likely we will go home the week before. We are moving back into my Mom's place and I am stoked lol. Soon we will be around our friends and family. I will definitely miss my new friends I made here at the MLIS program and I plan on staying in touch with them. Last night Ben and I celebrated with the CLA UWO Student Chapter. Nine of us went to Palasad Bowling on Adelaide Street here in London. It was great! Tonight I am off to my friend Sarah's birthday party. The celebrations have began! But reality has also set in... start applying for jobs. I have applied to two so far. One for a library program assistant position and one for a part-time librarian position, both with the City of Ottawa. I really really REALLY hope I get one of these jobs for the summer. One journey has just ended, and now I am in search of a new one. I hope this one will be just as beautiful and colourful as my experience I have just finished at the University of Western Ontario.

Week 13 - Paranormal is the New Normal

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

Generation Dead
By Daniel Waters
LPL Call # F Wal

So my boyfriend and a few of my friends from the MLIS program are Zombie junkies. Ben (my bf) loves the Left 4 Dead video game. He plays it all the time. At first I was totally not into the whole zombie thing. Over time I started to like playing this video game and sometimes I will watch him play. Zombie culture is out there and people love it. We even have a zombie themed bathroom in our apartment! (That was the least I could do since Ben moved to London with me for my schooling).
There are numerous young adult fiction novels today on paranormal activities such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies. Daniel Waters' Generation Dead is on the subject of teenage zombies. I am still trying to understand the whole zombie apocalypse and how it can occur. In this novel, Waters describes zombies as the "living impaired" (Waters: 3). I thought, "Okay. Kinda cool and catchy." But I'm still not really getting into this whole phenomenon yet.

My personal biases of not believing in the possibility of zombies taking over our planet or even the notion of people living despite they are dead -aka zombies, held me back from enjoying this book. However, after Waters describes the possibility of teenagers being able to become zombies based on the "Frankenstein Formula Theory" where a certain mixture of teenage hormones and fast food preservatives allow for teens to not die and become the living impaired (Waters: 7) made me think this is a bit more logical and I can try and look past the truth that zombies can or can not be a possibility in the future.

I choose this book for this weeks LIS 9364 class discussion not only because it was the first one to arrive on my holds list, but for the reason that there was a zombie cheerleader on the front. I was a cheerleader for my highs school and I thought "A zombie cheerleader, now this is neat!" Unfortunately, there where no living impaired cheerleaders referenced within the book, just living cheerleaders. There was however Tommy Williams, who was a zombie football player in the novel. False advertisement! But here you can see a marketing strategy maybe instilled on the publishing company. Put a female zombie cheerleader and we may just get a lot of female teen readers. Why not put a male zombie football player on the cover and attract both male and female teens? Hello more sales, and more readers.

Despite all of this information of me not believing in zombies, I enjoyed this book. Despite it being a 392 page novel, it is a quick read as the language used is easy to understand. The characters where all great (both alive and living impaired). Not only is romance a theme within this novel, but tolerance and understanding for others who are different then oneself is also discussed (a great theme to discuss within a young adult novel as they to are learning to do the same). Overall, I would rate this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars!

Childhood Memories - Postcards, Cook Books & Rubber Bands

          

I am getting excited to finish my MLIS program and the University of Western Ontario and move back to Ottawa and live with my Mom. I know i'm lame lol. I can't wait to hang out with my Mom in her kitchen and talk, cook/bake, and smell the aromas. One huge childhood memory I have with books is recipe books.

I can't wait to go home and see in the kitchen shelves old cook books (including Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker's The Joy of Cooking), with old postcards from around the world (mostly from my Tante Rita - who worked as an Ambassador's secretary and later with John Diefenbaker's personal assistant team) used as bookmarks for my Mom's favorite and most used recipes. The topping on the cake for my memory of recipe books is.... rubber bands!

This is a Ladelpha trait my mom picked up being married to my father. My Grandpa Joe always used (and now my Dad always uses) rubber bands to keep things together. My Mom's The Joy of Cooking book is in two pieces and a big blue rubber band holds it together. I love seeing the book like that. My mom has asked for a new copy of the book but neither my brother or myself have gotten her one. Maybe we just can't part with the original book? I guess its a childhood memory we can't part with. It is pretty amazing how a book can be part of a wonderful childhood memory.

Prom - Reaching the End of a Journey

First off; Congratulations to Paulette Rothbauer! (my LIS 9364 professor).

She was the winner for the Fantastic FIMS Award on Saturday night!

I went to our MLIS prom on Saturday April 9th 2011. I had a blast! I prepared for weeks! Getting the dress, getting the dress altered, buying shoes, buying hair accessories, and buying make up. I practiced my make up and put my hair in curlers a few nights before so I wouldnt drive myself crazy on the day of. I had a great time dressing up, feeling pretty, and feeling like a teen again. I remembered my prom in high school and how I did all the same type of things. I am however, always proud with how I can usually pull off an outfit for less then $100. I did this time as well. I bought my dress on sale from a bridal store that was closing, so it only cost me $60. I got my friend to alter it, which was then free. I bought my shoes, make up and hair accessories all on sale. All of this came up to about $40. My boyfriend Ben looked so handsome and he was quite excited for the prom as well since he never went to his.

I can just imagine how some teens must be looking so forward to their prom coming up in either May or June. I know I was for my MLIS prom and i'm twenty five years old! Below are two young adult books based on a prom theme. Aimee Ferris' book Will Work for Prom Dress is about how two teen girls have to work part time jobs in order to make enough money to buy their prom dresses. If you are a teen who is not into the whole prom event, Abby McDonald's The Anti-prom may just interest you.

         

 

What did you get this week from your public LIBRARY?

Hello Everyone!

I thought I would try something new. I have been following http://www.greenbeanteenqueen.com/ blog and really like her posts called "In My Mailbox." Not only is GreenBeanTeenQueen a librarian, she is also a children's, young adult, adult book reviewer. Publisher companies will send her numerous novels to read and review on her blog. However, I am not so lucky. I don't get these beautiful packages delivered to my apartment every week. But... I do have a library card! So I thought... why not try and promote the books we have in our public library collections. Isn't that a better idea? Well I thought so. I have been wanting to try and read more YA graphic novels. I got 5 YA graphic novels and 1 adult graphic novel from the London Public Library this week. I am super happy I only have one more week of classes. I am so excited to be done school and then I can take a month vacation, to read, cook, go to the gym, scrapbook and blog! I can't wait. So here are the books are waiting for me when I am done classes! And my pretty flowers my boyfriend gave me for Prom :)

Wonderland Written by Tommy Kovac

Library Wars: Love & War Volume 1 Story & art by Kiiro Yumi

Mercury Written by Hope Larson (Eisner Award Winner)

The New York Four Written by Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly

Love Letters Volume 1 Written by George Asakura

Graphic Novels: Stories to Change your Life Written by Paul Gravett (Adult Graphic Novel)

Week 12: E-Books for Teens

Ok... I have to put my personal biases aside on this topic but I will start by stating my view points.... I am not a fan of reading things online other than emails and quick information for research. I can't stand reading articles and books online or on electronic devices (mobile phones, Ipads, Kindels, whatever...I don't like it!). So I print off my articles and highlight them. I make messy notes in pen all over print out pages as I feel I can remember more information doing it this way. But what I do is not necessarily what teenagers do when reading.


Green, John. "The Future of Readings." School Library Journal. 56.1: 24-29.

&

Braun, Linda. "28 Days of Teens & Tech #11: The State of Reading." YALSA Blog. April 6, 2011.

Retrieved from: http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2011/02/11/28-days-of-teens-tech-11-the-state-of-reading/

Despite my personal views on choosing not to read e-books; teens are choosing to read     e-books. As librarians, we must acknowledge this fact and create library policies that include e-books in teen collection development. John Green however, is in my favour of "Team Print." In John Green's article, he states "I don't think books have anything to fear from movies, television, and facebook. I see no evidence that reading itself is in mortal danger, but how we read will change...because it is always changing (Green: 25). I believe there is a generational change of how individuals read, especially between myself who is 25 and teens who are 15. Teens are technologically savy. They use the computer for everything! With this being said, teens and adults both read but the way we find things to read and how was read them are different and changing. This gives librarians the responsibility of being a gatekeeper for children and teens. Librarians must try and bring in only the best books into the library (Green: 27). With this being said, we must also use different formats of delivering the best books to teens. Remember, one of the primary goals of a librarians is to make sure people in the community connect to what they need to connect to (Braun: 2011).   

In Linda Braun's article, she acknowledges how we must accept reading in different formats. Braun asks librarians to ask themselves tthis question: "How are you displaying ebooks and making sure that teens know what's available?" (Braun: 2011). We must be inovative and create library programs that have teens reading digitally, create booklists that focus solely on ematerials, and create ematerial collection development policies (Braun: 2011). Okay, so I dont personally like ebooks. But as a librarian, I MUST suggest tools and ematerials that will help teens become effective readers. Something I must begin (and so must other librarians) is to become familiar with how teens interact with content and not just how teens read for enjoyment purposes.